Christmas Cracker Swap Fun!

I bet given the Merry Christmas post that popped up this morning no-one was expecting to see me again this side of Christmas! But I just wanted to post about the Christmas Cracker Swap...

My partner for the Swap was Cat. 

And last week I got a lovely cracker shaped parcel from her. The cracker itself was huge and was wrapped in beautiful rainbow coloured dotty fabric! I love it and I am going to have to conquer my fear of sewing to make something nice with it! Even the ribbon tying each end was cute - you can't see it very well in the pictures but it's printed like a measuring tape!

Originally I had planned to keep the cracker for Christmas Day but it sat calling my name and I couldn't resist! I untied it and opened it up to discover all of the following lovely goodies...

Inside was the Your Home and Garden Christmas special (a great read filled with heaps of inspiration!), 2 rolls of lovely red washi tape (1 with really cute hearts!), 3 cute gingerbread men ornaments (so it was a great idea to open before Christmas as now I can enjoy them on the tree!) and some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Sticks.

It's a lovely parcel and thank you so much to Cat for putting together a great collection of goodies for me!

Cat has blogged about the cracker I sent her here if you'd like to go visit :-)

And here's a sneak peek of what I did send....

Cat's a fan of crochet so I made her some handmade stitch markers. She loves Cath Kidston so I sent her some CK stickers and I also included some washi tape tealights. I also tried to fit some washi tape rolls in and they wouldn't fit so I wound some round some empty cotton reels instead. 

Here's a close up of the stitch markers...

And I couldn't pick just one quote so included these two...

"No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted" ~ Aesop

"What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet"

I decorated the cracker with lots of pink and aqua as Cat likes those colours.

It was a bit of a nightmare to post as I didn't want it to get damaged. In the end I cut a box in half to fashion a long box - it was a complete hatchet job but seemed to do the trick!

I did try to pretty the outside up with a little washi tape!

It's been a really fun swap and I'm definitely hoping to organise one next year as well. It's great seeing what everyone has been sending and receiving. You can see who else was involved in the swap here and there's also a linky so people can link up when they blog or post the pictures!

And this time, it really is Merry Christmas from me! See you on the other side :-)

Christmas Cracker Swap Linky

After my desperate plea for people to join me in a Christmas Cracker Swap we ended up with 10 people swapping! Thanks everyone for signing up!

Here are the lovely people who signed up in their swapping pairs...

Widge and Ange from Tall, Short & Tiny

Alice (no blog) and Angela (no blog)

Lisa from Lydia's Treasures and Kimberley from Creative Chaos

Megan from Mousehouse and Arohanui Vegan Love

Cat from Catalina's Cottage and Me

I have set up a linky on this blog post so that swappers can link to their blog posts or uploaded images showing what they sent and received. Watch this space to see some creative crackers coming soon :-)

Sign-ups for the Christmas Cracker Swap close on Friday

This is just a reminder that the sign-ups for the Christmas Cracker Swap close this Friday on the 30th November.
You can see all the details here.

We already have quite a few people signed up but it would be nice to have some more so please get in touch if you'd be keen to join in :-)

Will you join me for a ***Christmas Cracker*** Swap?

I think I've had a great idea but until I post this and see if I get any responses/sign-ups I won't know if it's as great as I think it is! I also appreciate it's a busy time of year for people and we may all be committed to other swaps already but I'm hoping this one is reasonably simple for people to join in.

Let me explain what made me come up with this swap idea...
This week I bought the Your Home and Garden Christmas issue and was flicking through it. I saw their article on making your own Christmas Crackers and thought it had been years since I made crackers and that I should make some for hubby and Mr Mischief this year with cute little trinkets and quotes/jokes picked out especially for them. (Which I'm still intending to do). But then I realised I wouldn't have a cracker to pull along with them and it would be a shame to make my own because I'd know what was in it.
And just like that - ding! a lightbulb went off somewhere above my head!
Why not see if anyone else would be keen to make and swap special Christmas Crackers? So here I am :-)

Here's what I'm thinking:

• If you're keen to join in sign up on or before FRIDAY 30th NOVEMBER (please - at least one person sign up so I get someone to swap with!). I will then match people up and send out details around the 3rd December.
• If we have an even number of sign-up's I will probably do 1 on 1 swap partners (you get the name of 1 person and make a cracker for them, they make one for you in return). If there's an odd number I may do a random draw (i.e. you may not be sending a cracker to the same person sending one to you). If you have any preference between these 2 options please let me know here in the comments or in an email.
• Each cracker should be handmade using a cardboard roll (for a bit of strength to keep the contents safe), pretty papers and embellishments.
• The cracker should contain a small gift (value $5-10) suited to your swap person (hopefully you will have a blog, twitter or facebook link to find out more about them) AND a quote or a joke that you'd like to share with them.
• Optional extras include: a snap (I know these may not be easy to get so won't make them compulsory)***, a lolly or sweet treat and a paper hat
• Aim to send your cracker to your swap person by 15th December (you will have about 2 weeks between getting their name and having to post) so that it arrives with them before Christmas.
• It's up to you how extravagantly you decorate your cracker. I have been collecting ideas on this Pinterest board that might help. There are also some links to tutorials there as well.

So...please tell me you might be keen? 

If you'd like to sign up send an email to me (katie@mummy-adventures.com) by/on Friday 30th November with a note of:

• your name, 
• email address, 
• postal address
• and a URL (blog/twitter/facebook) so your cracker maker can hopefully find out more about you and personalise your cracker in some way).

And if you know someone else who might be keen to join in (even if you're not) please spread the word! 

If there's any questions feel free to comment or email me (katie@mummy-adventures.com).
If there's enough interest I'll set up a grab-code for the button so you can grab it and share it. Alternatively just save the picture and then link it back to this post :-)

At this stage I am thinking this will be open to NZ addresses only (due to postage times and prices) but if you're overseas and super keen email me and I'll see what I can do!

***Please note: Thanks to Kimberley for letting me know that NZ Post won't let you mail crackers which include a snap as it's considered an explosive! So please don't add snaps to your crackers or you won't be able to mail them. We will all just have to say "bang" when we pull them :-) ***